Key refuses to pay compensation for Pike River

Written By: - Date published: 6:53 am, November 16th, 2013 - 120 comments
Categories: david cunliffe, health and safety, john key, same old national - Tags:

pike river fire

I blogged earlier on this subject and expressed the hope that the Pike River families would receive adequate compensation.  And David Cunliffe elegantly skewered John Key on the issue in Parliament this week.  But regrettably John Key has ruled compensation by the Government out unless it is forced to pay.  And nothing short of legal action will suffice.

The sums involved are at this stage not great.  In the Department of Labour prosecution Judge Farrish ordered Pike River to pay compensation of $110,000 to each of the deceased’s families and also to the two survivors and these sums are very modest.  A comparable case in the United States resulted in a US$46 million compensation package that was part of a US$209 million settlement of criminal and civil liability.  There is still the possibility of a civil case in New Zealand.

The Judge expected the money to be paid.  She previously said that it was morally unjust the way that Pike River Coal Ltd had been able to fold soon after the disaster and thereby avoid paying further money to the families.  According to the Greymouth Star:

Judge Farish slammed the Pike River company for a “total lack of remorse” and claims that it could not afford to pay reparation to the families.
“It is not often a company steps back and holds its hands up and says ‘I have nothing’. Even a company in a fragile state usually comes forward and offers reparation, but here nothing has been forthcoming.
“I am satisfied the company has the means to pay either by existing shareholders or a combination of the shareholders and directors. I note that the directors have significant insurance.”

But the Judge’s very strong statements did not embarrass the relevant parties into coughing up although it has been said that at least one shareholder has had the decency to make a pro rata offer of cash from his share of the insurance payout.

So how did John Key respond to suggestions that the shareholders of the parent company NZ Oil and Gas should stump up with the cash?  After all these included ACC and the Cullen Fund and favourable noises from him would have no doubt persuaded these entities to at least pay their share of the compensation ordered.  Between them they own about 7% of NZOG’s shares have a 7% direct or indirect stake in Pike River so on a pro rata basis a miserly $238,000 would have to be paid.  Their share of the insurance payout of $80 million that NZOG received would be $5.6 million so the Government could have paid its share of the compensation from this amount and barely missed it.

But Key ruled this out on the basis that he would be creating a precedent and that the Government would then be responsible for redundancy pay every time the Government held shares in a company.  How he can compare the payment of redundancy with the payment of compensation for avoidable deaths that occurred through gross incompetence is beyond me.  Equating the loss of loved ones because of an inherently unsafe mine with the loss of a job is both stupid and insensitive in the extreme.

So if the Pike River families want justice they will have to take the Government and other parties to Court.  I hope they do.  If they do so they can consider the following as possible avenues for further investigation:

  1. Claim against the directors for allowing Pike River to be run in a manner likely to create a substantial risk of serious loss to the company’s creditors contrary to section 135 of the Companies Act 1993.  With the benefit of hindsight the way the mine was run clearly created a substantial risk of serious loss to all involved in the mine.  There is some wriggle room in what meaning ought to be given to “creditors” but if this includes the workers they may be able to sustain a claim.
  2. Claim against the directors and the senior managers for breach of a statutory duty by allowing the mine to remain open when the risks were apparent.  As was said by the Royal Commission, “even though the company was operating in a known high-hazard industry, the board of directors did not ensure that health and safety was being properly managed and the executive managers did not properly assess the health and safety risks that the workers were facing. In the drive towards coal production the directors and executive managers paid insufficient attention to health and safety and exposed the company’s workers to unacceptable risks. Mining should have stopped until the risks could be properly managed.”
  3. Make a claim against the Labour Department for failing to shut the mine down.  As reported by Stuff “the royal commission into the tragedy found the then Labour Department should have issued a prohibition notice when Pike started hydro extraction of coal in September 2010 because the mine lacked a second emergency exit.”  The commission finding  said that “[t]he Department of Labour did not have the focus, capacity or strategies to ensure that Pike was meeting its legal responsibilities under health and safety laws. The department assumed that Pike was complying with the law, even though there was ample evidence to the contrary.”
  4. Claim against the Mining Inspectorate.  Again from the stuff article “[t]he royal commission’s report also highlighted that the Government’s mining inspectorate had substantially declined since new health and safety laws were introduced in 1992.  It had ignored warnings that the changes could be disastrous for mining” lawyer Nick Davidson QC said.

Now that the photo opportunities have passed and the effect of the PR spin that the country was subjected to has subsided it is very clear that an avoidable disaster has occurred and the cost has been innocent workers lives.  The least that should be done is for the Pike River families to be properly compensated.

120 comments on “Key refuses to pay compensation for Pike River ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. Frank 1
    16 November 2013 at 7:29 am

    While I would usually be the first in line to give Key a sharp left in the gob. Yeah, nah.

  2. tricledrown 2
    16 November 2013 at 7:36 am

    The National party should be sued for gross neglegence.
    The party that puts profit before people!

    • David H 2.1
      16 November 2013 at 12:01 pm

      Maybe Key being in charge of all the govt depts, should be lumped in with the rest of the incompetents, as the chief incompetent.

  3. chrissy 3
    16 November 2013 at 8:37 am

    john key has no emotional attachment to the citizens of New Zealand. He has no family ties as his parents were born out of NZ so he also has no kiwi history. I don’t believe that he is here to make our lives better but is here to establish a business that is being run for the rich. The rich who he will do anything for. “Just ask and I will make it happen” He is a sad little toady hanging around the fringes of *the cool gang* waiting to be let in. Witness him stalking Putin and popping up in as many photos as possible with Putin in it. He is a know not, who is using us to further his self perceived *world leader* status. LOL. Maybe nz could start a fund raising drive to fund a court action against the Govt. Off to buy a Lotto ticket now.

    • Paul 3.1
      16 November 2013 at 9:31 am

      He’s here for the global elite.
      And they’re coming in droves because he is turning this country into a paradise for them.
      ‘Private jet visits to NZ booming’
      http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?objectid=11155982

      ‘Billionaire’s paradise’
      http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?objectid=11139546

      John Key made his important contacts at Merrill Lynch.
      They’re his handlers.
      And they’ve given him a job to do in New Zealand before he retires to Hawaii.

    • Will@Welly 3.2
      16 November 2013 at 10:44 am

      Chrissy – this is the thing that has crossed my mind time and again about John Key. His parents came out here, fleeing Europe after the Second World War. John’s father set up a restaurant, probably too soon after the war in those days, drank his money away and died. His mother was a middle class person – race really doesn’t come into it – but given New Zealand’s lack of a real class culture then, she would have been dismayed. In Europe, people knew their places, the classes didn’t mix, here we did, and in many places, still do. John’s parents lived in a very nice house in Auckland. After John’s father died, his mother moved to Christchurch. The “business” was sold to pay the debt, what was the story about the house – was it mortgaged, or rented ? Somehow Mrs Key managed to get a state rental in Christchurch, after having lived all her previous time in Auckland – why the move south ? As you say Chrissy, John had no other family in New Zealand, other than his two sisters, and I’ve always wondered about the real truth about the “backstory”. My understanding, once you’d owned property back then, no matter what the circumstances, you’d never ever get into a state house. As John Key has stated, those 8 years in a state house has given him the biggest political capital he could ever ask for. Now he is destroying the very fabric of the society he was born into.
      As for paying the families of the victims of Pike River, that should be the responsibility of NZ Oil & Gas – if the Government wanted to, they would make sure that NZOG paid up. Trouble is, they don’t care. 29 men died because the Government simply doesn’t give a rats arse about the workers in this country.

      • Sacha 3.2.1
        16 November 2013 at 8:27 pm

        “His mother was a middle class person”

        She was brought up in a well-off merchant family in Europe. John-boy’s cultural capital was not one of poverty.

      • Tinshed 3.2.2
        17 November 2013 at 2:43 pm

        FFS, you will be calling him a ‘rootless cosmopolitan’ next. Never thought I would read such drivel.

  4. miravox 4
    16 November 2013 at 9:27 am

    I hope they take them to court too and can clarify the responsibilities of the government as regulator and inspector, as well as getting the already awarded Pike River payout.

    I’m sure a fund can be set up to kick things off, if required.

    • BM 4.1
      16 November 2013 at 9:34 am

      Already has

      Tony Kokshoorn said earlier that the trust had received more than 20,000 individual donations totaling more than $7 million.

      http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10708056

      • miravox 4.1.1
        16 November 2013 at 9:50 am

        That’s for the victims’ families – not for legal action to establish the company and government reparations for not keeping up with their responsibilities.

        • BM 4.1.1.1
          16 November 2013 at 10:00 am

          Company is defunct so the only option is to chase the tax payer for money because that’s what you’re doing by suing the government, the money ain’t coming out of John Keys pocket it’s coming out of the pockets of kiwi workers.

          When you look at it, kiwi taxpayers have already been very generous, 7 million dollars for the families and a $10 million body recovery effort.

          If you think they deserve more open up your wallet.

          • miravox 4.1.1.1.1
            16 November 2013 at 10:06 am

            This kiwi taxpayer would be very happy to know the government was obliged to legislate, regulate and monitor industry correctly. That workers were safe. And if you wanted to go down the track of the monetary cost to kiwi workers – think about the costs of inquiries, commissions, ACC, hospitals, rescue and safety, police etc. when badly regulated and monitored industry turns to custard.

            • BM 4.1.1.1.1.1
              16 November 2013 at 10:37 am

              Out of curiosity how much has the EMPU given the miners families?

              I remember reading somewhere that the EMPU brings in something like 80 million dollars in subs per year.

              Surely all that money isn’t spend every year so maybe they should dip into their reserves and compensate these families for what they truly believe they deserve.
              I’d say the union members would have no issue that that, looking after their fallen comrades families

              Great chance to demonstrate the value of belonging to a union.

              • miravox …
                16 November 2013 at 10:39 am

                I don’t know. Why don’t you go find out and get back to me?

              • tricledrown …
                16 November 2013 at 10:47 am

                The National party cutting mine safety inspectors circa 1992 to virtually nothing is the reason why miners are dead.
                labour only slightly less as it did investigate the situation and slowly tried to remedy the situation.
                National had another chance to redeem themselves with new legislation labour had started but they just shelved it.
                Successive govt s are responsible so govt should pay

              • Te Reo Putake …
                16 November 2013 at 10:55 am

                Fuck off, you scabby piece of shit. You read somewhere? Or just plucked a figure out of your arse?

                Do some maths, fool. 40,000 members, 7 bucks a week.

                For the record, the EPMU (note spelling, BM) was the only participant in the Pike River inquiry not to have its legal costs subbed by the government. Even that loathsome tosser Whittall had his bills paid, but not the workers’ union. The cost, last time I heard, was nudging a million. The union also set up a welfare fund immediately after the disaster and co-ordinated world wide fundraising for the families.

                The EPMU, and its members, have contributed more than just money, though. They’ve stood with the families since day one, and unlike Key, they’ve never turned their back on them.

                So, tell us, BM, what have you done for them? Hint, talking bollocks doesn’t count for shit.

                • BM …
                  16 November 2013 at 11:08 am

                  Take it down a notch there fella.
                  I wasn’t trying to put the boot in, just asking a question.

                  I was a bit out with the 80 million as I’m not really up with the structure of the unions. I thought the EPMU was the head union and every one branched off that.
                  The EPMU is only worth 10 million a year.

                  The 80 million is for all unions combined, maybe the rest of the unions could all chip in and help out?

                  • One Anonymous Knucklehead …
                    16 November 2013 at 11:29 am

                    No need for charity: the liable parties have plenty of money, it’s the human decency they’re lacking (with the exception of those noted in the OP).

                    Oh, and what TRP said, trash.

                  • QoT …
                    16 November 2013 at 11:30 am

                    You must live a very privileged life if you think total income = disposable profit.

                    • BM …
                      16 November 2013 at 11:44 am

                      You do have to wonder how the Unions can burn through 80 million a year, what do they spend the money on.?

                      Their biggest costs would have to be staff, I guess they must pay their staff really well.

                    • One Anonymous Knucklehead …
                      16 November 2013 at 11:48 am

                      DNFT Scab.

                    • QoT …
                      16 November 2013 at 7:08 pm

                      Well BM your “guess” is obviously just as good as any amount of actual research. Maybe only 80 people work for unions in NZ and they’re all millionaires. That would seem to be totally logical.

                  • Foreign Waka …
                    16 November 2013 at 11:47 am

                    This case is a lesson that should be used to lobby for a change in commerce law that such obligation should be met by insurance payouts before corporate/companies get the funds. It is the reason to have those in the first place. For the parties to keep the money is in my view not only insurance fraud but morally repulsive.

                  • thechangeling …
                    16 November 2013 at 3:35 pm

                    According to those stats the EPMU has income of $1,456,000 per year. Nowhere near the $80 mil purported by BM and also very unlikely to be anywhere near the total union income across all NZ Trade Unions these days. *(Before the neo liberals attacked the power of Trade Unions with the ECA in 1991).

                    • BM …
                      16 November 2013 at 3:58 pm

                      Think your maths might be a bit out there bud.

                      From work done by a chap called The Owl, who’s dug through the latest annual reports.

                      The figures are:

                      PSA $16,804,637
                      NZEI $17,402,592
                      NZNO $14,237,227
                      EMPU $10,519,668
                      FIRST $5,638,256
                      SFWU $4,993,078
                      NZPPA $8,936,506

                      Total $78,527,964 Annual Subscriptions

                    • Te Reo Putake …
                      16 November 2013 at 6:30 pm

                      Funny how you and the owl both share the same spelling mistake, BM. Is there something you want to tell us?

                    • BM …
                      16 November 2013 at 6:43 pm

                      The M should come before the P?

                    • QoT …
                      16 November 2013 at 7:13 pm

                      So you and Cameron Slater – sorry, “The Owl” – have “dug through” annual reports and you still don’t know where the money goes? Sounds legit.

                    • BM …
                      16 November 2013 at 7:24 pm

                      I haven’t done shit.
                      All I’ve done is read the results of The Owls hard work, I claim nothing, the work is all his.

                      Makes for interesting reading, especially around the laxness of reporting finances especially surprising when there’s 100’s of millions of dollars in play.

                    • framu …
                      18 November 2013 at 8:27 am

                      “EMPU $10,519,668”

                      thats not 80m is it wonder boy

              • miravox …
                16 November 2013 at 11:01 am

                Oops cancel that request BM, we just found out. Thanks TRP, much appreciated.

                Yes, one of the (many) very valuable reasons for joining a union.

                • Te Reo Putake …
                  16 November 2013 at 12:05 pm

                  Cheers, miravoz (and others).

                  Anybody wishing to make a contribution to the EPMU fund can do so via Kiwibank or by cheque.

                  Donations can be made at any Kiwibank branch or direct to bank account: [correct account below – MS]. The account name is Pike River Family Education Trust.

                  Cheques made out to “Pike River Families Education Trust” can also be sent by post, care of EPMU, PO Box 14-277, Kilbirnie, Wellington 6241.

                  • Ad …
                    16 November 2013 at 12:40 pm

                    …which is a whole bunch more than that rich prick John Key and his immoral government. Proud to have donated. EPMU have their heads held high through this.

                    Kia kaha to the families.

                    Cunliffe went hard this week on it, my bet he is going to go harder describing the sick taste in the mouth of New Zealanders by John Key’s cabinet decision not to award compensation.

                  • Jilly Bee …
                    16 November 2013 at 1:29 pm

                    TRP – have you got the right bank account number there. I thought BNZ had the 02 prefix and Kiwibank was 18. Just checking.

                    • Te Reo Putake …
                      16 November 2013 at 1:39 pm

                      Yes, right you are, JillyBee. A further search suggests it’s actually this one:

                      Kiwibank 38-9011-0165987-00

              • Draco T Bastard …
                16 November 2013 at 1:26 pm

                Out of curiosity how much has the EMPU given the miners families?

                It’s not their responsibility but the responsibility of the shareholders. What you’re actually arguing for here is that those shareholders not be held to account.

              • Murray Olsen …
                16 November 2013 at 8:11 pm

                I suppose the unions should pay David Bain compensation as well. The pilots’ association could have paid compensation for Erebus, and the firemen’s union could pay for the damage in Christchurch. We should forget about negligence altogether, in the interests of union busting. Bloody moron.

          • David H 4.1.1.1.2
            16 November 2013 at 12:39 pm

            Yeah, and the insurance payout is what ? 80 million?

          • ghostwhowalksnz 4.1.1.1.3
            17 November 2013 at 8:50 am

            The taxpayer has allready stumped up $5 mill for the losers, TeamNZ-and various global corporates, to ‘tide them over’ till a new Americas Cup contest is set up.

            This money will go to probably less people than died at Pike River

  5. bad12 5
    16 November 2013 at 9:29 am

    David Cunliffe may have as you say ‘skewered’ Slippery the Prime Minister over the abhorrent attitude He has to the payment of compensation to the Pike River families,

    Any decent Government would have (a) began the process of enacting Legislation which puts those effected by such a tragedy and subsequent orders of compensation by the Courts up at the top of the queue as ‘secured creditors'(and as an aside to this levies must be struck and held by ACC in a specific ‘disaster fund’ where workers owed monies by insolvent employers can be paid in full), and (b), simply passed enabling Legislation to pay the Pike River families the cost awarded by the Court with a non-precedent setting clause,

    Having said all of that, what exactly is Labour Leader David Cunliffe going to do as Prime Minister after November 2014, there is a little too little coming from the leader of the Opposition on such niceties,(will David be putting into the Parliament the Pike River (special) Compensation Bill,

    My disquiet grows, David Cunliffe in His address to the recent Conference pointed out that ‘the middle class’ are in trouble with unaffordable rents,

    In today’s NZ National Party NZ Herald, Armstrong, perhaps suffering more then usual today, quotes Cunliffe from a speech to Victoria University where He is said to have lambasted National over it’s taxation policy claiming that that middle class is carrying the highest degree of taxation…

    • RedBaronCV 5.1
      16 November 2013 at 1:28 pm

      I’d be the first to say that Cunliffe has a huge job altering the course of NZ and needs all the help he can get. He’s pointed out that the so called middle classes can’t afford rent which means the rest don’t have a chance.
      Without usurping his agenda (!) shutting off the flow of monopoly rents and untaxed profits fleeing the country and taxing super salaries would surely have to be the first calls for inflows and moving on investment in such activities. When this is captured locally then there is more to go around. Much tho’ I may not want to say it, in the short term he needs at least the co-operation of the “middle classes” probably the sort who post on here to create a middle class that everyone belongs to . As far as I can see, we need to enter a world economic “stable state”.
      To get there we either need to share or fight it out. I’m for the sharing.

  6. karol 6
    16 November 2013 at 9:44 am

    Now that the photo opportunities have passed and the effect of the PR spin that the country was subjected to has subsided it is very clear that an avoidable disaster has occurred and the cost has been innocent workers lives.

    yes, I recall clearly how key was in there with the photo ops immediately after the disaster, claiming support for the victims and their families, and weeping crocodile tears. Now he shows little compassion or responsibility. Charlatan!

  7. red blooded 7
    16 November 2013 at 10:25 am

    My reply is to Chrissy. Have another look at your comment. Do you really believe that someone whose parents were born elsewhere has no emotional attachment to NZ. JK is a manipulative selfish prick, but that has nothing to do with the birthplace of his parents. Think about how many people you are dismissing as having no love for this country when you make sweeping assertions like that.

    • Bearded Git 7.1
      16 November 2013 at 11:35 am

      +1

    • Draco T Bastard 7.2
      16 November 2013 at 1:51 pm

      +1

      My parents were English but you won’t find me having any attachment to England or its aristocracy. It’s all NZ.

    • chrissy 7.3
      16 November 2013 at 4:34 pm

      Am very sorry if that I how you see it. I was strictly referring to johnkey alone and in his capacity as our Prime Minister. And that is my opinion only and I won’t be changing it anytime soon. If you think johnkey is running the country for the benefit of the WHOLE of NZ then good luck with that.

      • gobsmacked 7.3.1
        16 November 2013 at 5:51 pm

        I was strictly referring to johnkey alone

        No, you were insulting thousands of New Zealanders. Including thousands who dislike this government as much as you do.

        Seriously, you think the real problem with Key is that he’s not Bill English?

        • poliambidextrous 7.3.1.1
          17 November 2013 at 3:48 am

          +1

          chrissy, your comment was insulting to ALL of us whose parents were born overseas. We’re New Zealanders too and we care about this country just as much as you do. Would you like a step ladder to help you down from that horse you’re riding?

  8. PHILG 8
    16 November 2013 at 10:36 am

    Xox
    He’s called the smiling assassin for good reason.

  9. Appleboy 9
    16 November 2013 at 11:32 am

    People like BM amaze me. There is nothing this government does that he doesn’t support. There is a long list of lies and deception and time after time evidence they favour the few – amazing – what you just blindly support out of ideology or you are just greedy and self centred by nature?

    Since when did a government do a deal with a casino to get infrastructure built? Sky City must be laughing – the $400 million build cost is just like a rebate for them on the total profits they earn from it. They must love having a politician in the pocket so much you can buy a deal and change the laws of the land to get what they want

    Scum.

    • Paul 9.1
      16 November 2013 at 12:56 pm

      Don’t stress about BM. He doesn’t believe what he writes.

      He’s either:

      A) paid to write what he writes
      B) has nothing much to do with his life
      C)is very rich
      D) very stupid.

      I think a combination of a, b and d.

    • Will@Welly 9.2
      16 November 2013 at 12:59 pm

      And just how much – read that little tax – these corporations pay here. They take their profits off-shore and lock them away in counties where they pay minimal taxes, before returning them to shareholders.

    • Naturesong 9.3
      16 November 2013 at 1:15 pm

      “Since when did a government do a deal with a casino to get infrastructure built?”

      That would be the Casino Control Authority in 2001 when Judith Collins ran it..

      This was previous to Judith Collins becoming an MP. She was establishing her credentials as a serious National Party candidate.

      It was a transparent and ethically bankrupt decision which prompted the Government of the time to craft the Gambling Act 2003.

      While the Sky City deal is the latest a recent example of Government corruption, these folks have history.

  10. johnm 10
    16 November 2013 at 12:50 pm

    BASTARD!

  11. Bill 11
    16 November 2013 at 1:03 pm

    Very good Pike River mine interview with Rebecca Mcfie (book released yesterday) on radio NZ this morning http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/2576610

    My own thoughts on compensation are that, if necessary, a specific piece of legislation pertaining to Pike River victims should be passed. Part of the reason for that (putting on my ‘bad bastard bureaucrat/lawyer/politician’ hat here) is that ‘everyone’ knows the government is going to be in a big fcking hole when the Christchurch asbestos claims begin to roll in in 20 years or so.

    • thechangeling 11.1
      16 November 2013 at 11:14 pm

      Bill Birch is ultimately responsible for Pike River so he should be strung up by the neck with rope until he is dead. We can then all throw rotten fruit at his corpse.

  12. Ad 12
    16 November 2013 at 1:04 pm

    I would be very happy to donate to a civil case brought by the families.
    In fact i would be quite happy to generate a fundraiser for it.

    I know a good few lawyers who would relish the opportunity to support such a case. Included are those with a health and safety enforcement background, those with administrative law backgrounds, and ACC specialists.

    While a Cabinet decision that is not acting under direct regulatory power may not be judicable (ie a judicial review of the decision might not be possible), it is still easily foreseeable that Key and his cabinet colleagues who made the decision not to compensate could be called as expert witnesses on the reasons not to compensate within a civil case.

    That alone would be election year gold on tv.

    Bring it on Mr Key.

  13. Ad 13
    16 November 2013 at 1:07 pm

    Mickey it would be good to see you getting a post from a legal specialist in this kind of litigation – without giving too many of the tactics away of course. For example what would Justice Thomas make of it?

  14. RedBaronCV 14
    16 November 2013 at 1:42 pm

    I think everybody involved as an investor in this needs to remember that limited liability is a “legal construct” if I have the right term. The community has given this as a legal right because the assumption generally is that overall the community benefit exceeds the harm.

    It could simply be legislated away as commentators have suggested here as the harm has been too great. The community can simply remove it.

    The threat of legal action should be resulting in a lot of arm twisting behind the scenes -from a selfish right wing point of view it would be better to stump up voluntarily than risk the system as they know it collapsing. Let’s hope they have had this pointed out to them.

  15. RedBaronCV 15
    16 November 2013 at 1:52 pm

    BTW Mickey you mentioned some thing about a shareholder who would pay over their share . Any further details?

  16. photonz 16
    16 November 2013 at 2:43 pm

    1/ So you think when a private company is ordered to pay compensation, the tax payer should step in and pay it for them.

    Yeah – that sounds like a great idea.

    2/ And despite previous links proving NZOG didn’t get paid $80m, you still carry on with this lie.

    3/ You fail to acknowledge that NZOG was only a 30% shareholder in Pike River, so ACC and NZ Super’s 7% of NZOG then reduces to an indirect stake in Pike River of just 2%

    4/ The govt should look at paying it’s share of the compensation, in line with it’s shareholding – 2% of what the court ordered (on top of the ACC payments already paid, and the million taxpayers are spending on a small chance of body recovery). If they pay more, the taxpayer is paying compensation for other private companies and shareholders, which is totally wrong.

    5/ While there are undoubtable safety issues with the mine, it’s still quite likely that the blast could have been caused by a sudden leak of methane from a coal seam during mining – something not even the best safety precautions would have stopped.

    [You are right but wrong photonz. ACC and Cullen Fund have 7% of NZOG but also own 5.6% of Pike River’s shares. The result is about the same but article has been amended – MS]

    • McFlock 16.1
      16 November 2013 at 2:55 pm

      More bullshit.

      By your logic, I was not liable for rent a few years back when one of the flatties skipped out, because I was only a 20% shareholder in the lease.

      As for your speculation on the causes of the blast and whether it could have been stopped, you’re just inventing bullshit again.

      I respect you for working on a weekend, though, photoshop. PDR time?

      • photonz 16.1.1
        16 November 2013 at 4:12 pm

        By your logic you’re also responsible for your flatmates uncles second cousins default on a car loan.

        Funny that you can rule out what happened in the mine when not even the experts know.

        Perhaps you should ring them up and lend them your expertise about which of their scenarios are “invented bullshit”.

        I’m sure they’d be appreciative of you insight since you seem to be so sure of what did and didn’t happen.

        • McFlock 16.1.1.1
          16 November 2013 at 4:24 pm

          Funny that you can rule out what happened in the mine when not even the experts know.

          Hang on: you make shit up. I call you on making shit up, and all of a sudden I’m the one making statements about what happened down there?

          There’s a major difference between a report by qualified investigators and you proclaiming that it’s “quite likely” that a particular scenario occurred and that no safety precautions could have stopped it. Particularly when the trained investigators identified a number of possible ignition sources, many of them identifiable and the removal of which could have stopped it.

          • Sacha 16.1.1.1.1
            16 November 2013 at 8:53 pm

            “While there are undoubtable safety issues with the mine, it’s still quite likely that the blast could have been caused by a sudden leak of methane from a coal seam during mining – something not even the best safety precautions would have stopped.”

            A hydro-mining expert disagrees with you, as reported in an extract from the new book on Pike – http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/tragedy-pike-river-mine-how-and-why-29-men-died-dc-148754

            “But he feared that Pike did not have a sound appreciation of the particular risks associated with hydro mining, and how those risks dif­fered from other forms of mechanical mining.

            Continuous miners and roadheaders have a known production rate. Assuming the methane content per tonne of coal has been properly assessed, the amount of gas that will be released into the mine atmosphere can be calculated, and the amount of ventilation required to keep gas to a safe level can therefore be worked out.

            But hydro mining can cut through very large volumes of coal quickly, resulting in big surges of methane that need to be flushed away by the ventilation circuit and diluted to a safe concentration as they are carried out of the mine.”

    • Paul 16.2
      16 November 2013 at 2:59 pm

      Is this one of your hit and run debates, photnz?

      Be very careful about what you say about the Pike River 29.
      Your friends in the Nats caused the disaster when they deregulated the industry in the early 90s.
      29 people paid for that ‘nanny state’, ‘non pc’, ‘red tape’ argument with their lives.

      So did 115 in the CTV building…..because of neo-liberal deregulation.

      • photonz 16.2.1
        16 November 2013 at 4:17 pm

        I had a relative just across the road right when CTV came down and you try to shift the blame from a crooked engineer to politicians on one side of the spectrum. That’s pretty sick

        You’re using dead people to try to score political points.

        • Sacha 16.2.1.1
          16 November 2013 at 8:40 pm

          Neither engineers nor miners caused lax regulations that favoured the financial interests of company owners.

        • happynz 16.2.1.2
          17 November 2013 at 12:32 am

          I had a relative just across the road right when CTV came down…

          That has what to do with the discussion? Nothing, I reckon. Weakest link, photonz.

    • Ad 16.3
      16 November 2013 at 3:11 pm

      1. Where the company is bankrupted and there is no chance of recovering any money, and there are multiple damaged families who need to get their life back in order, my answer is: that is what my taxpayer dollars are for.

      2. Wait for next week – more to come.

      3 and 4. The government should bring whatever services are required around those families, and keep paying taxpayer dollars through those services until they are back on a firm foundation.

      It’s called society.

    • mickysavage 16.4
      16 November 2013 at 3:56 pm

      Photonz

      While there are undoubtable safety issues with the mine, it’s still quite likely that the blast could have been caused by a sudden leak of methane from a coal seam during mining – something not even the best safety precautions would have stopped.

      Did you read the passage in the post where the Royal Commission said “even though the company was operating in a known high-hazard industry, the board of directors did not ensure that health and safety was being properly managed and the executive managers did not properly assess the health and safety risks that the workers were facing. In the drive towards coal production the directors and executive managers paid insufficient attention to health and safety and exposed the company’s workers to unacceptable risks. Mining should have stopped until the risks could be properly managed.”

      The mine was a bomb waiting to go off. The sudden leaks of methane were utterly predictable and without the proper infrastructure in place Pike River has a sense of inevitability about it.

    • Draco T Bastard 16.5
      16 November 2013 at 4:27 pm

      1.) No, that the company should actually pay what they’ve been ordered to
      2.) Read the post again
      3.) No he didn’t
      4.) The government has responsibility for allowing an unsafe mine to proceed and not ensuring adequate oversight was available
      5.) That’s just you blowing out your arse.

    • photonz 16.6
      16 November 2013 at 4:42 pm

      Mickey – if their total direct and indirect ownership of Pike River was around 7%, then they should pay 7% of the ordered compensation.

      But it would be wrong to fork out taxpayers dollars to pay they share of private companies and other shareholders.

      If dept of Labour shares some blame, then that’s another discussion as well. Although should taxpayers fork out on behalf of Land Transport for everyone that’s killed on roads that aren’t up to first world standards (pretty much all our roads).

      Otherwise, tragic as Pike River is, we have compensation via the no fault ACC system for the many hundreds of people killed every year in road accidents, work accidents – particularly forestry, mining and fishing, earthquakes, medical misadventures, murder, drownings, air accidents etc.

      • mickysavage 16.6.1
        16 November 2013 at 4:47 pm

        Mickey – if their total direct and indirect ownership of Pike River was around 7%, then they should pay 7% of the ordered compensation.

        That is exactly what I proposed Key should do but he has ruled that out.

        But it would be wrong to fork out taxpayers dollars to pay they share of private companies and other shareholders.

        I have not suggested they should do this, just pay their share.

        If dept of Labour shares some blame, then that’s another discussion as well.

        This is addressed in the post and it appears that there is some risk of this eventually happening.

        • photonz 16.6.1.1
          16 November 2013 at 5:32 pm

          So you’re only asking the govt pay 7% of the $3.19m, or $223,000.

          That seems reasonable.

          Although on the other side of the coin they are being very generous with millions of taxpayer dollars trying to recover the bodies, which they don’t have to do.

          Cunliffe was trying to insinuate the govt was getting a big part of the $80m payout, and that ACC (5%) and NZ Super (1%) were parent controllers of NZOG – which was patently false.

          (which reminds me – you’re still factually wrong in your article about NZOG getting paid $80m. The banks and small contractors took over $30m of that).

      • Sacha 16.6.2
        16 November 2013 at 9:03 pm

        “first world standards”

        Nice try at lowering the bar. Keeping workers alive is a pretty basic responsibility wouldn’t you say? And yes, we are still in the wealthier group of world countries so “I can’t afford it” won’t wash from owners.

    • ghostwhowalksnz 16.7
      17 November 2013 at 8:54 am

      There were clear failures by the regulators – they didnt do their job of shutting it down right away- of course that would have cost Pike River money and the National Government doesnt do that sort of regulation

  17. Tracey 17
    16 November 2013 at 4:59 pm

    When john key said the govt would stand by the families and help however he could, he was getting political mileage from a tragedy?

  18. Delia 18
    16 November 2013 at 7:21 pm

    The Labour Department should pay compensation for its role in the disaster.

  19. charles kinbote 19
    16 November 2013 at 7:31 pm

    I do not know the custody chain of responsibility here, but it is true that John Key said the govt would stand by the families and help however he could .
    I agree with photonz and Mickey Savage about the ownership liability. 7%.
    The Country should make some agreement with the families here, Maybe we are frightened of setting a precedent

    this column is scary, the language is disgraceful,
    felix 9.1.1.1.1, 16 November 2013 at 5:07 pm
    Getting out of bed you miserable dumb fuck..

    and this
    Te Reo Putake …
    16 November 2013 at 10:55 am
    Fuck off, you scabby piece of shit. You read somewhere? Or just plucked a figure out of your arse?

    I see Mickey Savage has taken up the sad habit of using the black bold pen to correct people.,
    If the Standard has a quota of people to ban, then felix and Te Reo are good suspects. Also of course anyone Karol says is dumb

    [Given what Felix and TRP were responding to I thought their responses were vigorous but appropriate. The Standard tolerates a much more robust standard of debate than other sites – MS]

    • QoT 19.1
      16 November 2013 at 9:06 pm

      I see Mickey Savage has taken up the sad habit of using the black bold pen to correct people.

      That’s because this is his post and he’s a moderator. Did you miss kindy the day they did the lesson on respecting other people’s rules when you’re in their house?

  20. paulscott 20
    16 November 2013 at 9:52 pm

    QoT 19.116 November 2013 at 9:06 pm
    I see Mickey Savage has taken up the sad habit of using the black bold pen to correct people.

    That’s because this is his post and he’s a moderator. Did you miss kindy the day they did the lesson on respecting other people’s rules when you’re in their house?

    No,QOT I went to night school instead . They didn’t use filthy language, and they had some qualifications for what they were talking about.

    • mickysavage 20.1
      16 November 2013 at 9:56 pm

      Hmmm we are talking about West Coast families losing their loved ones because of greed and incompetence and some are getting upset because of the language used?

      Please …

    • One Anonymous Knucklehead 20.2
      17 November 2013 at 6:39 am

      Another lesson from kindy is “sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me”. Of all the language employed in this thread, you can only find offence in what Felix TRP and QoT are saying?

      As for your night school, what was the subject? Whining 101?

    • QoT 20.3
      17 November 2013 at 10:18 am

      Oh noes!!!!!! Filthy language!!!!!!!!!!!! I shall fucking repent and swear no fucking more.

  21. BrucetheMoose 21
    16 November 2013 at 11:26 pm

    If there is one good reason why governments should pay something in circumstances like this, it should be to make them more accountable and to force them to think more seriously about decisions relating to deregulating particular industries, and what the potential ramifications could result from such actions. Take the deregulating of building industry in the early 90s. The National led government under Bolger, were advised by certain building experts, that by implementing the proposed changes, it could cause serious problems in standards of buildings, resulting in detrimental financial costs far exceeding the savings gained from deregulation. The government completely ignored the advice, and look where that all went. The Leaking Building scenario is costing NZ billions, and will do so for decades. The government is heavily implicated in this whole mining disaster, they should pay something.

    • One Anonymous Knucklehead 21.1
      17 November 2013 at 6:28 am

      At what point does proceeding with a law change in the face of expert advice constitute criminal negligence? Ever? Is the ballot box the only legitimate response to political vandalism?

      • BrucetheMoose 21.1.1
        17 November 2013 at 12:28 pm

        Correct, there needs to be more accountability in the political system and our politicians, underwritten by appropriate laws. If this was to come to pass, there would be significant changes in attitude and the decisions made in our political structure. Of course this has to be partially implemented by our political system. Do you think that would happen with ethically devoid imposters like Johnny. Not a bag of lollies chance in a school yard.

  22. Bruce 22
    17 November 2013 at 3:27 am

    The thing is we’re not learning from mistakes:
    http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/pike-river-disaster/5996495/Disaster-lessons-not-learned

    This disaster is a true example of the swiss cheese risk model:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_cheese_model

    There needs to be more accountability. We need a law that allows corporate manslaughter charges to be laid against rogue employers with $$ signs in their eyes only. If laws are “relaxed” in the name of “flexibility” and “cutting red tape for businesses” and there are deaths as a result, then morally the government needs to pay up. If government are truly protectors of taxpayer money then they should legislate to minimise risk. Proposed accountability laws should be enshrined as basic human rights and not flagrantly brushed aside by an ideologically minded future NZ government.

    Comparing redundancies with what appears to be manslaughter is a ridiculous argument by Key. This feels like a massive downplay of 29 people dying on the job.

    • bad12 22.1
      17 November 2013 at 12:22 pm

      ”With what appears to be manslaughter”, my view of Pike River, in particular the first of the 4 explosions, is that this ‘MIGHT’ have been an accidental explosion of Methane Gas, with all the attendant liabilities of the mining company surrounding the competent extraction of such gas so as to maintain a safe working enviroment and with regards to also maintaining a safe ‘air-flow’ into the mine considering what i see as a seriously compromised system after the initial ‘rock-fall’ and ‘repair’ in the main ventilation shaft,

      ”Might have been an accidental explosion” i will explain thus: physically the mine was seriously compromised in terms of safety in a number of areas,(mostly covered by the Royal Commission), Financially the mine was also seriously compromised by it’s inability to produce the amounts of high quality coking coal it was contracted to,

      The shareholders at this point had flatly refused to stump up with any more money for the mine which to all extents and purposes was at the point of defaulting on an order of coal where the ship was already dispatched for it’s collection,(Pike River had tried to purchase coal from Solid Energy),

      Whittal the CEO had been ordered by the company directors to find further funding to keep the mine operating,(as far as i know there was no successful line of credit found by Whittal),

      SO, what you have is to all extents and purposes an insolvent coal company unable to produce the coal it was already contracted to extract, no further lines of credit and the shareholders refusing to toss any more money down the hole, BUT, the coal company and there for the shareholders DO have a reputed $100 million insurance policy,

      And now cut to the chase, the mine manager on the afternoon of the first Pike River explosion while standing in the carpark some 2 kilometers from the mine smelled a strong smell of Burnt Diesel, Methane gas when combusted has NO smell,

      The South African electrician with 27 years mining experience sent into the mine to see what was going on said in His evidence to the Royal Commission that He smelled the strong smell of burned diesel, Methane gas when combusted has NO smell, the electricians description of the smell, ”like AMFRO explosives which He had experienced a number of times as a miner in South Africa”,

      Has the ‘truth’ emerged from Pike River, my opinion says no and it probably never will….

  23. vto 23
    17 November 2013 at 10:12 am

    Pike River is the epitome of all that is evil about the neoliberal approach.

    It disgusts me on every level.

    I spit in their faces – Bill Birch for enacting the h&s legislation, Pike River management for not operating the system, all shareholders for running such a short-term shoddy operation, previous governments for not dealing with the identified problems within the sector, all shareholders and directors for being prepared to spend more at Pike on further mining but not on cleaning up after the killings, and now this government for earning money from the dead miners and walking away from the dead miners.

    pittooooeeeee………. gob stink

    • Paul 23.1
      17 November 2013 at 12:46 pm

      Yeah and some people on this site think it’s worse to use bad language.

      • One Anonymous Knucklehead 23.1.1
        17 November 2013 at 3:36 pm

        Looks like deflection to me: I think what they’re really upset about is the evidence that their faith based political philosophy costs lives.

    • aerobubble 23.2
      17 November 2013 at 2:23 pm

      Lets not forget that many National voters like the idea of being a contractor, and essentially that’s what the spokesperson for the dead miners meant when he said Key was blaming the miners, inferring that the miners expected and accepted a non-unionized workplace and its flow on effects. That contractors take on the risks. I thought half were employees and the other half contractors, but I suspect they could have walked out and forced Australia type regulative inspections.

      Seriously. When employers force contracting on their employees, its up to the union movement to clearly indicate the risks and loses. And Key position should be regaled from every box, cliff top, mine shaft, and work place in the land.

      When you contract Key will walk away, you boss will walk away, their job done and your out of pocket. And guess what many contractors need to hear about this because they vote National.

      The sad fact though is the very west coasters that want compensation also are happy to have more mining, and never talk about unionizing the work force.

      • vto 23.2.1
        17 November 2013 at 8:40 pm

        and therein lies the source of the solution.

        history is the understanding.

      • Colonial Viper 23.2.2
        17 November 2013 at 8:47 pm

        Lets not forget that many National voters like the idea of being a contractor

        Nah. The move to contractors, non-unionised workplaces and insecure work was driven by the ECA and Labour never properly undid it with the ERA.

        The Left has been expert at creating electoral canes for itself.

        • thechangeling 23.2.2.1
          18 November 2013 at 12:09 am

          The ERA was watered (centralised wage bargaining was abandoned in favour of a continuation of enterprise based) down because Helen Clark was allegedly bullied by big business at various conferences she attended early on in her first term. Can’t see that happening this time around!

          • aerobubble 23.2.2.1.1
            21 November 2013 at 3:51 pm

            I disagree. I believe Labour had to work in the context of neo-liberalism to gain power, its failure was not the pushing of policies that would have made it unelectable, it was in not understanding and imbedding that understanding in their language. That profit idealized perfection driven economics was loony, even today Labour cannot abide calling the National party out for loony economics.

            Sure, I get people might read I’m against contracting, I’m not, I against the market failure that did not fully inform those who contract out to the real costs of doing so, the higher insurance they would need to take out and so the higher remunerations they needed to be asking for.

  24. lolitas brother 24
    17 November 2013 at 10:36 pm

    Frank 116 November 2013 at 7:29 am
    ” While I would usually be the first in line to give Key a sharp left in the gob. Yeah, nah.”

    yeah nah yeah bro , cool., watch Cunliffe go down

  25. Tracey 25
    18 November 2013 at 9:00 am

    Will he pay the families from the airnz sell down?

    BM

    the unions stood behind the miners and their families. The govt put money before safety and has an obligation.

  26. David 26
    18 November 2013 at 9:54 pm

    I totally agree that the government should contribute to compensation for the miners but I get saddened by the fact that not all parties seem to be standing up and accepting responsibility.

    I would like to think I drive health and safety in the company I work for and I have heard nothing said about the fact the workers were putting plastic bags over the gas sensors.

    Daniel rockhouse told his father after the fact they were doing it and it is highly likely the other shifts were as well. All in sundry is responsible for this accident including those who perished.

    The unions representatives were aware of the plastic bags what did they do? Complained after people died. I actually feel sorry for Peter Whittall as he sacked people for breaching health and safety procedures when he found about about them. His mistake however was allowing a mine with only one entrance along with others

    The department of labour should have been prosecuted, Daniel rockhouse should have been prosecuted, the unions should have been prosecuted and anyone else who turned a blind eye to poor procedures at that mine

Links to post

Recent Comments

Recent Posts

  • Brainwashed People Think Everyone Else is Brainwashed
    Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    3 hours ago

  • Peters’ real foreign policy threat is Helen Clark
    Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    4 hours ago

  • NZ’s trans lobby is fighting a rearguard action
    Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
    Point of OrderBy gadams1000
    11 hours ago

  • Your mandate is imaginary
    This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    16 hours ago

  • 14,000 unemployed under National
    The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    19 hours ago

  • Bryce Edwards: Discontent and gloom dominate NZ’s political mood
    Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    19 hours ago

  • Taking Tea with 42 & 38.
    National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    20 hours ago

  • Beware political propaganda: statistics are pointing to Grant Robertson never protecting “Lives an...
    Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”. As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    20 hours ago

  • Winding back the hands of history’s clock
    Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    21 hours ago

  • Paula Bennett’s political appointment will challenge public confidence
     Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
    Point of OrderBy xtrdnry
    21 hours ago

  • Business confidence sliding into winter of discontent
    TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    22 hours ago

  • Gordon Campbell on the coalition’s awful, not good, very bad poll results
    Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
    Gordon CampbellBy lyndon
    24 hours ago

  • New HOP readers for future payment options
    Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
    Greater AucklandBy Matt L
    1 day ago

  • 2024 Reading Summary: April (+ Writing Update)
    Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
    A Phuulish FellowBy strda221
    2 days ago

  • At a glance – Clearing up misconceptions regarding 'hide the decline'
    On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
    Skeptical Science
    2 days ago

  • Road photos
    Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    2 days ago

  • Bryce Edwards: Paula Bennett’s political appointment will challenge public confidence
    The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    2 days ago

  • NZDF is still hostile to oversight
    Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    2 days ago

  • Winding Back The Hands Of History’s Clock.
    Holding On To The Present: The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
    Bowalley Road
    2 days ago

  • Sweet Moderation? What Christopher Luxon Could Learn From The Germans.
    Stuck In The Middle With You: As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
    Bowalley Road
    2 days ago

  • A clear warning
    The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    2 days ago

  • Poll results and Waitangi Tribunal report go unmentioned on the Beehive website – where racing tru...
    Buzz  from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example.  This shows National down ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    2 days ago

  • Listening To The Traffic.
    It Takes A Train To Cry: Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
    Bowalley Road
    2 days ago

  • Comity Be Damned! The State’s Legislative Arm Is Flexing Its Constitutional Muscles.
    Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
    Bowalley Road
    2 days ago

  • Ending The Quest.
    Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
    Bowalley Road
    2 days ago

  • Will political polarisation intensify to the point where ‘normal’ government becomes impossible,...
    Chris Trotter writes –  New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    2 days ago

  • Bernard’s pick 'n' mix for Tuesday, April 30
    TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:30am on Tuesday, May 30:Scoop: NZ 'close to the tipping point' of measles epidemic, health experts warn NZ Herald Benjamin PlummerHealth: 'Absurd and totally unacceptable': Man has to wait a year for ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago

  • Why Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating in the country
    Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    2 days ago

  • Worst poll result for a new Government in MMP history
    Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago

  • Pinning down climate change's role in extreme weather
    This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
    Skeptical Science
    2 days ago

  • Serving at Seymour's pleasure.
    Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    2 days ago

  • Webworm LA Pop-Up
    Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    2 days ago

  • “Feel good” school is out
    Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    2 days ago

  • 6 Months in, surely our Report Card is “Ignored all warnings: recommend dismissal ASAP”?
    Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy. Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
    exhALANtBy exhalantblog
    2 days ago

  • Bread, and how it gets buttered
    Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago

  • Bryce Edwards: Why Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating in the country
    Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    3 days ago

  • Justice for Gaza?
    The New York Times reports that the International Criminal Court is about to issue arrest warrants for Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, over their genocide in Gaza: Israeli officials increasingly believe that the International Criminal Court is preparing to issue arrest warrants for senior government officials on ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    3 days ago

  • If there has been any fiddling with Pharmac’s funding, we can count on Paula to figure out the fis...
    Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    3 days ago

  • FastTrackWatch – The case for the Government’s Fast Track Bill
    Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 days ago

  • Bernard’s pick 'n' mix for Monday, April 29
    TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 days ago

  • Gordon Campbell on Iran killing its rappers, and searching for the invisible Dr. Reti
    span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
    Gordon CampbellBy lyndon
    3 days ago

  • Auckland Rail Electrification 10 years old
    Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
    Greater AucklandBy Matt L
    3 days ago

  • Coalition's dirge of austerity and uncertainty is driving the economy into a deeper recession
    Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 days ago

  • Disability Funding or Tax Cuts.
    You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    3 days ago

  • Of the Goodness of Tolkien’s Eru
    April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
    A Phuulish FellowBy strda221
    3 days ago

  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #17
    A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
    Skeptical Science
    4 days ago

  • Pastor Who Abused People, Blames People
    Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    4 days ago

  • Vic Uni shows how under threat free speech is
    The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago

  • Winston remembers Gettysburg.
    Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    4 days ago

  • 25
    She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8.  The universe was ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    4 days ago

  • Fact Brief – Is Antarctica gaining land ice?
    Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
    Skeptical Science
    5 days ago

  • Policing protests.
    Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    5 days ago

  • Open letter to Hon Paul Goldsmith
    Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago

  • Bryce Edwards: FastTrackWatch – The Case for the Government’s Fast Track Bill
    Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    5 days ago

  • Luxon gets out his butcher’s knife – briefly
    Peter Dunne writes –  The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago

  • More tax for less
    Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago

  • Real News vs Fake News.
    We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago

  • Another way to roll
    Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.Share ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    5 days ago

  • Simon Clark: The climate lies you'll hear this year
    This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
    Skeptical Science
    5 days ago

  • Cutting the Public Service
    It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    6 days ago

  • Luxon’s demoted ministers might take comfort from the British politician who bounced back after th...
    Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious:  we live in a troubled ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago

  • This is how I roll over
    1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    6 days ago

  • The Waitangi Tribunal is not “a roving Commission”…
    …it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisition   NOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes –  The High Court ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago

  • Is Oranga Tamariki guilty of neglect?
    Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same? Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago

  • Three Strikes saw lower reoffending
    David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago

  • Luxon’s ruthless show of strength is perfect for our angry era
    Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago

  • 'Lacks attention to detail and is creating double-standards.'
    TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago

  • One Night Only!
    Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    6 days ago

  • What did Melissa Lee do?
    It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    6 days ago

  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #17 2024
    Open access notables Ice acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment: In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
    Skeptical Science
    7 days ago

  • Maori Party (with “disgust”) draws attention to Chhour’s race after the High Court rules on Wa...
    Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    7 days ago

  • Who’s Going Up The Media Mountain?
    Mr Bombastic: Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
    Bowalley Road
    7 days ago

  • “That's how I roll”
    It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    1 week ago

  • “Comity” versus the rule of law
    In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    1 week ago

  • Aotearoa: a live lab for failed Right-wing socio-economic zombie experiments once more…
    Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder. In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
    exhALANtBy exhalantblog
    1 week ago

  • Minister acknowledges passing of Sir Robert Martin (KNZM)
    New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    15 hours ago

  • Speech to New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, Parliament – Annual Lecture: Challenges ...
    Good evening –   Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us.  ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    15 hours ago

  • Accelerating airport security lines
    From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    17 hours ago

  • Community hui to talk about kina barrens
    People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    23 hours ago

  • Kiwi exporters win as NZ-EU FTA enters into force
    Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    23 hours ago

  • Mining resurgence a welcome sign
    There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago

  • Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill passes first reading
    The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Government to boost public EV charging network
    Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure.  The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Residential Property Managers Bill to not progress
    The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Independent review into disability support services
    The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Justice Minister updates UN on law & order plan
    Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Ending emergency housing motels in Rotorua
    The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago

  • Trade Minister travels to Riyadh, OECD, and Dubai
    Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago

  • Education priorities focused on lifting achievement
    Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago

  • NZTA App first step towards digital driver licence
    The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say.  “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago

  • Supporting whānau out of emergency housing
    Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago

  • Tribute to Dave O'Sullivan
    Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago

  • Speech – Eid al-Fitr
    Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago

  • Government saves access to medicines
    Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff.    “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago

  • Pharmac Chair appointed
    Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago

  • Taking action on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder
    Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says.  “Every day, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago

  • New sports complex opens in Kaikohe
    Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago

  • Diplomacy needed more than ever
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges.    “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago

  • Anzac Commemorative Address, Buttes New British Cemetery Belgium
    Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service.  It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago

  • Anzac Commemorative Address – NZ National Service, Chunuk Bair
    Distinguished guests -   It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders.   Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    7 days ago

  • Anzac Commemorative Address – Dawn Service, Gallipoli, Türkiye
    Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia.   Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    7 days ago

  • PM announces changes to portfolios
    Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • New catch limits for unique fishery areas
    Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Minister welcomes hydrogen milestone
    Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Urgent changes to system through first RMA Amendment Bill
    The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Overseas decommissioning models considered
    Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Release of North Island Severe Weather Event Inquiry
    Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Justice Minister to attend Human Rights Council
    Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order.  “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Patterson reopens world’s largest wool scouring facility
    Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Speech to the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective Summit, 18 April 2024
    Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing  At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin    Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho    Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today.    I am delighted ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Government to introduce revised Three Strikes law
    The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • New diplomatic appointments
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions.   “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says.    “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Humanitarian support for Ethiopia and Somalia
    New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today.   “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

  • Arts Minister congratulates Mataaho Collective
    Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale.  “It is good ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago

  • Supporting better financial outcomes for Kiwis
    The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago

Page generated in The Standard by Wordpress at 2024-05-01T20:39:36+00:00